By now you’ve probably heard about the explosions that happened today at the Boston Marathon. If not, check out the resources below to get up to speed. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those affected.
What We Know
Rather than try to keep up on the changing news stories (and the hurt feelings that go along with it), I’ll let the Blaze do it.
- Blaze coverage and updates
- President Obama addressed the nation calling for “increased security” around the United States as necessary.
President Obama Addresses the Nation
Resources
- Find a Boston Marathon participant
- Boston Marathon Google People Finder
- Red Cross Safe and Well Registry
Rest assured this story is just beginning. May God bless this nation.
Looked like a war zone, God bless all of the victims and rain hell upon the perp/s
I might catch flak for this, blame it on being desensitized or whatever, but seriously, why is this being made out to be such a big event? Yeah, yeah, thoughts and prayers to the family of the two people killed. The kid was especially sad. But, this was a failed attempt at a poorly thought out, terribly executed attack by an amateur. I would be shocked and amazed if this was done by a real bad guy. The odds are, more people were killed in the US by household appliances or swimming pools today. Certainly thousands more were killed in car accidents. Calling attention to this as a big bad terror event is just encouraging the other little maladjusted shit heads secretly plotting this stupid shit in their moms basement. The attention this is and will receive is nothing short of a trophy for participation. I am seeing this called an attack on our nation, our people. I am seeing it touted as something comparable to 9/11. 3,000 Americans were killed in the 9/11 attacks. 2 today. I passed a more devastating car accident on the way to work this morning. I’m seeing people calling this a terrible, horrific terrorist attack. Let’s put this in context. Ma’alot was a horrific terrorist attack. The Beslan Massacre was a horrific terrorist attack. 9/11 was a horrific terrorist attack. Lets put this in context and stop giving it this much attention. All we are doing is validating the plans of the other maladjusted little shits in their parents basement who are furthering their google researched plans, because they see that you do in fact get a trophy for participation, and that you can be the talk of the country, and be all over the news for days or weeks, no matter how ineffectual your shitty little efforts are.
COme on, IT DID NOT LOOK LIKE A warzone. The shot of the spot were the explosion happened didn’t even have broken concrete. Yeah, bloodstains, sure, but comparing it to a warzone? Ignorant. Disrespectful, and playing into the fantasies of the perp.
-Sorry if this offends everyone who is worked up into a crazy frenzy. Like I said, desensitized or whatever. ‘Merica, we’re better than this.
Hey genius, the blown off limbs looked like IED injuries, I sure as hell wasn’t talking about the damn debris
Again, sorry to rain on everyone’s outrage, but unless the numbers get significantly revised (which is a definite possibility, at which point I will eat crow for jumping the gun), this is no worse than a major traffic accident in terms of significant injury and overall victim trauma. I’ve played the mascal games, the odds are of the hundred touted injuries (Which is really only 22 based on the reasonably credible reports), I would be willing to bet that only 5-7% were above serious, and another 5-10% were moderate. The rest were minor cuts and could be field treated without evac. Again, sorry for being a dick, and for the handful of people who were devastated by this, I give my full unabashed sympathy, but this is a tragedy on the scale of a large multivehicle rollover/small pile up. Not 9/11, which is the real thing I was trying to rebuke. Not you particularly, but the massive media shitstorm being piled on by a huge social media outrage. We’ll wait until the dust settles, but I’d be willing to go +300 that this was a half assed homegrown in mommies basement deal, not a funded terror attack by the bad guys. It’s about scale, and the scale of the outrage is far and above the scale of the event. All this is doing is showing that terror attacks are a viable outlet to get attention. And you know what? The real bad guys, the ones who do this well, are looking at this snickering and saying to themselves: “Just wait until they see a real attack.” They are looking at our outrage at a relatively insignificant event and it is validating their plans for a larger one.
Did you see these pics? sure as hell don’t look like a traffic accident to me
http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/first-photos-from-the-scene-of-the-boston-marathon-explosion
I also never heard anyone put this attack on the scale of 9/11
What media source did you hear compare this to 9/11?
It sounds like you have been mercifully shielded from the the inside of a major/multi fatal TC looks like. I envy you that a bit. Looks way worse than those pictures you posted.
No one is comparing it to the scale of 9/11, because no one is mentioning scale. But there are plenty places (CBS, CNN, FOX were the three that were on while I was wasting my energy at the gym) comparing it directly to 9/11. CNN even had a nice slide show of 9/11 pics with Oklahoma city pics contrasting next to the pics from today. Just so people can mix up the visual imagery. Sorry to ruffle your feathers there, but the scale of this event is not to par with the outrage and coverage it is receiving. All we are doing is proving that we can give failed attempts at a terror style attack the same mass coverage we give school shootings, theater shootings, whatever. Showing that we can and will put you in the spotlight, and keep you there on every channel, you can become a celebrity through your mal-actions.
Where was homeland security? I thought this was there job! We throw all this money at them and what are they good for? You still want to take our guns away now?
Thanks Brandon for keeping updated, valid information. So many false reports flying around. Challenging day here in Boston, especially for the first responder community. But we are strong, we are resilient. Justice will prevail.
Praying for you guys.
NY Post is the only one reporting 12 dead. Everyone else is confirming 2 dead, 100+ injured.
Yeah, there are rather large discrepancies in the number injured being reported as well.
ya know what Darrell, i hope a fucking IED in your home town takes your leg you tactless, classless piece of shit!
Ryan, pull your head out of your auto-outraged ass for a second and get a fucking clue dumbass. By the scale of the response, we are showing that we will give those who are planning or want to plan this kind of despicable shit the attention they so want. Plus, we are setting it up to show the big boys that they can come play and get the same attention as well. Call me tactless you witless stupid fuck? If anyone followed my viewpoint to conclusion, which is my fucking opinion so no one has to (btw, it is based on LTC Grossmans teaching in terror response and domestic terror avoidance), they would see that I am trying to limit this so that it is less appealing to the ones who want to perpetrate it. But go ahead, wish more injury on me for speaking my opinion. I have a bit more to give for my country. Maybe not enough left for me to be within the eligibility for a enlistment, but I do still have both of my legs and my VA rating isn’t at a 100% yet. So fine, bring it fucktard.
i’ll bring it to your doorstep asshole. this happened in my town.
just because you have the right to voice an ignorant fucking opinion, doesn’t mean you should. having tact is knowing when to keep your stupid fucking mouth shut.
Rather than play right into the hands of the people who did this by showering it with attention? You honestly think the families of the TWO dead want this all over the news for the next weeks? You think they want to pick up the paper and see the faces of their slain family member? Or what about the seriously injured, the ones staring down at a life that will never be the same. the ones who likely haven’t even begun to realize how different things are after losing a limb, or any other major injury. Do you think they want it shoved in their face over and over again? Oh, sorry they aren’t the ones who matter. Giving those who deserve it the privacy to mourn isn’t whats important, rather the fact that it was YOUR home town, making it about you, right? Make sure you let them know that you self centered idiot. You obviously have no idea what the word tact means, other than the fact that it makes you sound cool when you throw it around.
You want to talk about tact? How about letting those affected work through their processes in peace. But no, lets talk about over and over again. Lets stream live feeds, and replay slideshows. Lets post links to the pictures.
But go ahead. Threaten a Vet, threaten those who kept the wolf at bay this long. That makes you look great. Your town got the short straw, and your neighbors may be hurt. So take it out on me, well come get me young Skywalker. Take out all of that frustration you feel on me.
But know that what you are feeling isn’t special just because of a few explosions. The feelings of helplessness and despair, that transfer to rage and make you want to lash out, those aren’t from just explosions. Those come from any acute life altering trauma, like a car wreck, or a mauling, or military service in war. It doesn’t mean that the cause needs to be kept in the limelight, giving the perpetrator the vindication and celebrity that they always wanted. Make them into something, make them famous. Do for them what they couldn’t do on their own, shower them with attention through their deeds. Set up the next one. But know that you are not the victim, and even if you were you are no more special than those struck down by any other tragedy. No more special than the kid run over by the drunk driver, no more special than the baby who drowns in the backyard while the mom is in the shower. No more special than the rape victim, or the family of the man slain in a mugging. A life shattered is shattered. The only difference is, in this case the one responsible is given exactly what they want. Attention, everyone’s undivided attention.
But, by all means bring it to my doorstep. Show me my ignorant opinion. I’ve never been through trauma. I’ve never seen lives shattered beyond repair. I’ve never had to hold a friends wife as she broke down knowing that it would never be the same again, that the husband who she had to be pealed away from before deployment wouldn’t be back. I’ve never felt the guilt because I should have been in that convoy, not him. He was picking up my slack because I went and got myself hurt early. I’ve never seen great men lain low by the cowardice of others, and helped pick up the pieces. I’ve never seen the side of the first responders. I’ve never looked down and realized that I know the child whose head I just got out of a field, a dozen yards from what was left of the car. I’ve never held a car accident victims hand and looked into her eyes as she died, terrified with the steering wheel of a Datsun truck sticking through her chest. I’ve never responded to to a call at a fellow EMS workers house on her off shift and found out she killed herself, and left us a note about how sorry she was that we would be the ones who found her, and that she had laid out a tarp in the bathtub before she pulled the trigger to make the cleanup easier.
I’m just some guy in the internet. What could I possibly know about trauma. It’s not like I felt the ground fall underneath me, that all I could think about was reaching out to the guy from Charlie company who I was unloading from my FLA, strapped to a litter. That all I could think about was stopping his fall, and that it never occurred to me to that there was someone else falling until I saw that flash of light, that blinding flash of light and felt the bones in my neck break as I hit. I can still see my hands reaching out for him, trying to stop his fall in slow motion. I can hear the other medics yelling, and the fire going up and down my arms and legs, the fire burning my chest, the fire that only existed in me.
Don’t worry though, I’m just some ignorant asshole on the internet.
My viewpoint, my advice and my opinion don’t come from experience with terror and loss and despair and rage. You bring me terror. You bring me it to my doorstep.
To be honest you sound like a fiction writer, and you’re not the special snowflake that you think you are so get over yourself
That was very eloquently put, Darrell. I see exactly where you are coming from with this.
Classy.
barry, Boston polish commish refuses to comment on death toll. it’s been 2 confirmed since it happened. i would nearly guarantee it’s more at this point. esp with the # of wounded rising as fast as it has been.
thankfully our first responders had a game plan for something like this and acted quickly. thank god for the EMS/LEOs.
Obama you know who did it they are your people.